The Art of Decision Making: How we Move from Indecision to Smart Choices

by Joseph Bikart

Overview

Drawing insights from philosophy, psychology, literature, and theology, a longtime executive business coach explores how and why we make the decisions we do

What is it that makes some of us better—or worse—than others at committing to a choice? What are the forces that hold us back, and how can we successfully overcome them? Every facet of our lives depends on the decisions we make. Yet, how often do we pause to reflect on our ability to make the best and smartest choices? The key is how we confront and refine the decision-making process. Here, Joseph Bikart explores the intricacies of decision making, challenging us to understand why we make the choices we do. He explores how the true power of decisions, especially the toughest among them, help us to face our fears and may in turn change how we think about ourselves.
 
Breaking his study into four clear parts and short practical essays, Bikart presents a lively and compelling exploration of the process of decision making. He covers:

• Indecision, Indecision: What makes us indecisive? What holds us back and why?
• Where Art Thou?: How and where we get stuck and the importance of relaxing one's grip.
• The Momentum of Decisiveness: Keeping our focus and proactivity.
• The Deciding Mind: Making our smartest choices.

Drawing from such different fields as philosophy, psychology, neurology, literature, art history and theology, The Art of Decision Making takes us on a journey from the depths of procrastination to the elation of decision making. Presenting a fresh perspective on what to do at the proverbial fork in the road, Bikart's unique philosophy is insightful, thought provoking, and potentially life-changing.

Product Details

ISBN-13:	9781786781710
Publisher:	Watkins Media
Publication date:	07/09/2019
Pages:	256
Sales rank:	1,081,280
Product dimensions:	6.20(w) x 9.30(h) x 0.90(d)

About the Author

Joseph is a founder of Templar Advisors. Prior to this, he was a Senior Consultant in another international communications firm, and an Investment Banker with experience in Equity Capital Markets and Debt Finance (Project Finance). At Templar, Joseph has coached many senior management teams including the CEOs and CFOs of blue chip companies, mostly in Europe and America. He manages Templar's relationships with firms like Credit Suisse and Morgan Stanley. He is also very involved with Asset Management, Hedge Funds and Private Equity firms, assisting them with their fund raising, marketing and overall communications.

He teaches the Communication and Negotiation classes at the London Business School as part of its MBA Programme.

Table of Contents

Prologue 1

Introduction 5

Part I Indecision, Indecision 11

Chapter 1 Paradise Lost 13

Chapter 2 Defence Forces 19

Chapter 3 Project Fear 27

Chapter 4 Through the Looking Glass 57

Key skill 1 How to manage risk 61

Key skill 2 How to attain detachment 63

Part II Where Art Thou? 67

Chapter 5 Self Starters 69

Chapter 6 Hidden Chambers 73

Key skill 3 How to use intuition 96

Part III The Momentum of Decisiveness 99

Chapter 7 Of the Essence 101

Chapter 8 Decision Flow 105

Chapter 9 Under the Hood 109

Key skill 4 How to accept the unchangeable and change the unacceptable 117

Part IV The Deciding Mind 121

Chapter 10 A Question of Perspective 123

Chapter 11 The Thread Between Our Decisions 149

Chapter 12 Engaging with the Flow of the Will 153

Chapter 13 Our Narrative 161

Chapter 14 Mind Your Language 167

Key skill 5 How to decide under pressure 177

Conclusion 179

Epilogue 183

Endnotes 189

Editorial Reviews

'There is a Hamlet in each of us—troubled hours where we are called to choose and yet flee that appointment. In The Art of Decision Making, Joseph Bikart explores the anatomy of this perpetual dilemma: which factors lead to choice, and which keep us from choosing? Bikart leads the reader to greater understanding, greater accountability, and greater facility in cutting through the nettlesome thicket of life to a place of resolve.'
-James Hollis, Ph.D, Bestselling author of Living an Examined Life


'Joseph Bikart’s The Art of Decision Making is volatile. It shakes you by the scruff of your procrastination and wilfully wakes you from your slumber of indecision. As Eliot’s Prufrock soberly reminds us, every decision, even trouser leg style, has within it the potential to activate agony.
Navigating the complex world of how we decide or more urgently, how we avoid decision, is for many of us, a stormy sea. Bikart steers a brilliant course through these difficult waters and delivers his reader to new and clear-blue depths, encompassing the philosophy, psychology and cartography of every dimension of decision making. The best decision you will make today will be to clear your decks, inner and outer, and create space to devour this feast of wisdom. By turns erudite, creative, demanding, challenging, practical and insightful, The Art of Decision Making is blissfully relieving of the haunting tension of messy, clumsy and incompetent deciding.'
-Martin Lloyd-Elliott, Chartered psychologist, psychotherapist, business coach and bestselling author

From the Publisher